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Its biggest edges are cover Star Comprehensive simply doesn't offer: non-payable items cover, critical illness cover and mental health cover.
Not a clean sweep: Star Comprehensive still wins newborn baby cover and home health care - weigh those if they're your risks.
Read from each insurer’s official policy wording · plan facts last updated 2 Sept 2026 · an educational comparison, not advice and not a recommendation to buy.
Every difference that matters, split by which plan takes it - then the full receipt.
You’ve seen who wins what. Now put one real bill through both.
All 41features we compared, in one place - what differs (ranked by what it costs you at claim time), what reads the same whichever you pick, and the few things we couldn't verify.
Ranked by what the gap costs you when you claim - not by category, and not by how many boxes each plan ticks.
Cover only one of them has, and class gaps on the features that matter most.
Strong vs standard coverBig hospital bills
Optima Restore pays for any room. Star Comprehensive covers up to a single Private Room - take a costlier room and the whole claim shrinks proportionately - the cut lands on the room and every charge linked to it.
Each stronger on a different termWorth it if I never claim?
A real trade-off: Optima Restore is stronger on award Condition - Every Year (Even if Claimed) vs Claim-Free Year Only; Star Comprehensive on bonus Per Year (% of Base Sum Insured) - 100% vs 50%. Which wins depends on the risk you'd rather cover.
Only Optima offers it (add-on)Big hospital bills
Optima Restore has this as a paid add-on; Star Comprehensive doesn't cover it at all - that cost stays entirely yours with Star.
Only Optima offers it (add-on)Cancer & serious illness
Optima Restore can add a lump-sum critical-illness payout (50 illnesses); Star Comprehensive has no such option - that protection would need a separate policy.
Strong vs standard coverCancer & serious illness
Optima Restore pays this within your full cover; Star Comprehensive caps it at ₹3 Lakh - anything beyond that stays with you.
Only in OptimaEveryday medical costs
Optima Restore has this in the base plan; Star Comprehensive doesn't cover it at all - that cost stays entirely yours with Star.
Only in StarPlanning a baby
Star Comprehensive has this in the base plan (up to ₹1 Lakh a year); Optima Restore doesn't cover it at all - that cost stays entirely yours with Optima.
Only in StarBig hospital bills
Star Comprehensive has this in the base plan (up to ₹5 Lakh); Optima Restore doesn't cover it at all - that cost stays entirely yours with Optima.
Material differences - read them before you settle.
Strong vs standard coverBig hospital bills
Optima Restore covers follow-up care for 180 days after discharge; Star Comprehensive stops at 90 days - recovery bills past that point are yours.
Only Optima offers it (add-on)When does my cover switch on?
Optima Restore has this as a paid add-on; Star Comprehensive doesn't cover it at all - that cost stays entirely yours with Star.
Strong vs limited coverCancer & serious illness
With Optima Restore, the second opinion works only for a fixed set of named illnesses. If yours is not on the list, you pay for the view from your own pocket.
Strong vs standard coverEveryday medical costs
With Star Comprehensive, this pays only when an accident caused it, like a fall, a crash or a fracture. Illness-driven surgery, which is the more common case, is not covered.
Each stronger on a different termBig hospital bills
A real trade-off: Optima Restore is stronger on covered Events - Accidental Death, Permanent Total Disablement, Permanent Partial Disablement vs Accidental Death, Permanent Total Disablement; Star Comprehensive on maximum Sum Insured Cap (INR) - ₹1 Cr vs ₹1 Cr. Which wins depends on the risk you'd rather cover.
Each stronger on a different termEveryday medical costs
A real trade-off: Optima Restore is stronger on procedure Coverage Scope - All Standard Health Check-ups vs Listed Check-ups Only; Star Comprehensive on eligible From - 1st Policy Year Start vs 2nd Policy Year Start. Which wins depends on the risk you'd rather cover.
Only Optima offers it (add-on)Planning a baby
Optima Restore has this as a paid add-on; Star Comprehensive doesn't cover it at all - that cost stays entirely yours with Star.
Only Optima offers it (add-on)Cancer & serious illness
Optima Restore has this as a paid add-on; Star Comprehensive doesn't cover it at all - that cost stays entirely yours with Star.
Only in OptimaBig hospital bills
Optima Restore has this in the base plan; Star Comprehensive doesn't cover it at all - that cost stays entirely yours with Star.
Only in StarEveryday medical costs
Star Comprehensive has this in the base plan; Optima Restore doesn't cover it at all - that cost stays entirely yours with Optima.
Paperwork-level gaps - open any of them to verify yourself.
Differs on Donor Complication Coverage Available
Differs on Common Diseases Excluded from Domiciliary
Insurer-written exclusion clauses beyond the standard set, present in one policy and not the other. On the other side, absence means it is not listed as excluded - check with the insurer, don't assume covered.
Consumables and convenience items on the regulator's non-medical lists - gloves, admission kits, toiletries and similar - are struck off the hospital bill, and that part stays with you unless the policy writes them back into cover. On a long stay these small lines add up to real money.
A device you can put on and take off yourself, without a surgery to fit it, counts as equipment rather than as treatment, and is not paid for. Each policy draws the line in its own words: some list the items, such as wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, glucometers, oxygen concentrators and machines for sleep apnoea, and others set a test, such as whether the device can be removed without surgery. Where a policy writes a way in, either inside the clause or through an add-on that names the items it will pay for, its own wording says so.
Sleep apnoea is excluded, and some clauses widen the same exclusion to general weakness or a run-down condition. Some clauses bar only the investigation, so the sleep study that would find apnoea is on you. Others bar the condition itself, and then the treatment that follows is on you as well. The clause quoted for each policy tells you which.
Treatment that works by adjusting the spine or manipulating the skeleton, and muscle stimulation by any means, are not paid, whatever the reason for them. Where a policy writes a way back in, most often for setting a fracture or a dislocation, its own clause says so - and it also names any fracture it leaves out.
Systems of medicine a policy does not recognise are not paid for. Where the policy grants an AYUSH benefit, that benefit covers Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy, and it overrides this clause as far as it reaches. Therapies outside those six - acupressure, acupuncture, magnetic therapy, reflexology, chiropractic - stay excluded, and each policy names its own.
Consumable medical supplies such as elastic stockings and diabetic test strips are excluded by name. You pay for them yourself, even during an admission the insurer otherwise pays for.
The costs that sit around an organ donation, both finding and screening a possible donor and the expenses the insured person runs up in donating, are not paid as ordinary treatment. A donor’s own treatment is paid only as far as a policy’s organ-donor benefit reaches, and whatever that benefit leaves out stays with you. The clause quoted for each policy tells you which of these costs its own wording removes.
An admission for an organ transplant that does not comply with the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994 is not paid.
A policy pays for treatment given at a place that meets its own definition of a Hospital or of a Day Care Centre. If the treatment is given at a facility that does not meet that definition, the expenses are not paid, even when the same treatment inside a hospital would have been paid for. If a policy allows an exception, its own clause states that exception.
An admission for recovery rather than active treatment is not paid. Each policy extends the clause in its own direction: some add general weakness, a run-down condition or a nutritional deficiency, others add sanatorium stays, private duty nursing and long-term or custodial care. The clause quoted for each policy tells you which. It costs the most when an elderly patient is kept in hospital after the acute treatment has finished.
A set of advanced procedures is excluded by exact name - high-technology treatments the policy will not pay for even though hospitals offer them. Before you agree to a procedure with a brand-style name, check that name against the policy's own list.
Some expenses a policy will not pay are listed on the insurer's website rather than in the policy document you receive. When your hospital bill is settled, those items are removed from the claim as well. Ask the insurer for that list before you are admitted, so you know which costs you will pay from your own pocket.
Read the same whichever you pick - the floor you're safe on either way. Open any line to check the values yourself.
Differs on Treatment Type Covered
Differs on Illnesses eligible for refill
Absent from both - a fact, not a feature. They can't decide anything between these two.
The insurer can refuse an admission it judges was not medically needed - and, where the policy's own wording says so, any charge it judges above the going rate. It is the widest discretion in a policy and it applies to every claim, so keep the treating doctor's reasons on the file.
If the treatment could reasonably have been given without admitting you, the claim is refused - even though you were admitted. This is one of the most common reasons a hospital bill goes unpaid.
Birth defects visible on the outside of the body are not paid for. The clause reaches only external conditions - internal birth defects are not excluded by it. Some policies apply a waiting period to an internal birth defect instead, so it is paid only after that period ends. The conditions quoted for each policy say whether that applies.
Something can be written out of your cover for good, named on your own Policy Schedule when the policy is underwritten. Policies differ in how far that reaches: some can exclude only a disease that is declared and agreed to be excluded at the start, others any illness, injury, treatment or service the schedule names. The printed policy document does not list it, so read your schedule as soon as the policy is issued and ask the insurer to explain anything you do not recognise. Where a policy sets an end date for such an exclusion, or requires your written agreement to it, its own wording says so.
Ordinary dental work - check-ups, fillings, root canals, dentures - is usually not paid for. Serious dental treatment is paid only where the policy writes an exception of its own, so the exact trigger - an accident, a hospital admission, a named illness - sits in each policy's clause.
Expensive drug infusions, biologics most of all, are handled separately from ordinary hospital treatment. Some policies pay for them only when you are admitted, and refuse the same drug given in an outpatient infusion chair. Others refuse the admission that was arranged so that the infusion could be given, and a clause may name other costly infusions alongside, such as immunoglobulin or bone-strengthening drugs. Either way a large cost, often a repeated one, stays with you. The clause quoted for each policy tells you which way its own wording runs.
Glasses, contact lenses and hearing aids are not paid for: they count as external aids rather than as treatment. Each policy groups them with the other corrective aids its own clause names, and some clauses reach further, as far as devices such as cochlear implants. Where a policy writes a way in, a device needed because of an illness or injury, one fitted during an operation, or an implant made necessary by an accident, its own clause says so.
Injections given into a joint, and the platelet-rich plasma and cartilage treatments offered for knee and joint pain, are excluded. Some clauses bar the treatment itself. Others bar only the admission that was arranged so that the injection could be given, and some reach wider, to an injection into a lesion or to the medicines infused alongside it. The clause quoted for each policy tells you which, and names the injections it means.
The regulator standardised both the wording and the codes of these clauses, so they read the same in every policy sold in India - they can’t tell one plan from another.
Aesthetic procedures, weight-loss surgery or hair transplants - unless medically required after an accident.
Treatment arising from intentional self-harm or reckless exposure to extreme risk.
Unlicensed skydiving, bungee jumping, deep-sea diving or professional motorsport.
Injury from active participation in war, military operations, nuclear radiation or terrorism.
Standard waits (often 12–24 months) before pregnancy, childbirth and neonatal care are payable.
Therapy for drug abuse, alcoholism, smoking cessation and long-term psychiatric care beyond stabilisation.
We refuse to guess. Open any line for the reason, then take the question straight to your agent.
Everyday medical costs
Can't compare fairly yet - Optima Restore hasn't been annotated for this yet
Both plans make you wait before covering certain conditions, but they don't name the same ones. Select a body region or view the entire body to see which conditions each plan lists. A condition missing from a plan's list isn't a promise of cover - it simply isn't named there.
Acid reflux and stomach ulcers
Upper Abdomen
Acid damage causing burning or sores in the food pipe, stomach, or the first part of the intestine.
Vaginal wall bulge (Rectocele)
Lower Abdomen & Pelvis · Female
A weakness in the pelvic muscles causing the bowel to press into the birth canal.
Anal boil or infection
Rectal & Anal Area
A painful, pus-filled boil located near the anus.
Retina problems
Head & Face
Diseases affecting the back screen of the eye which is crucial for seeing.
Ear skin cyst
Head & Face
A harmful, growing cyst inside the ear that needs to be removed.
Optima Restore is the stronger cover here.
We surface; you decide. Below: where every concern lands, and how each side's record reads. Open a concern to bring the ledger down to just its features.
Your priorityTake the 2-minute assessment - we'll read this board against what matters to you.